Outsider leads after decisive Tunisia presidential polls

Political outsider Kais Saied was leading Tunisia’s elections with just over a quarter of votes counted, the electoral commission said yesterday, in the country’s second free presidential vote since the Arab Spring. Saied was on 19 percent, leading imprisoned media magnate Nabil Karoui, who was on 14.9 percent, and ahead of the candidate from the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party Abdelfattah Mourou (13.1 percent), according to the electoral organ (ISIE). Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, a presidential hopeful whose popularity has been tarnished by a sluggish economy and the rising cost of living, could well turn out to be the election’s biggest loser.